Zihark looked around the vertical shaft, his brows knitting together.
Those thick root-like growths were void scars, and with things like that around, this place was not exactly safe.
Then his gaze dropped lower, and he saw a huge mound of sand formed by the collapse. Half-buried in the yellow sand was a wrecked cart.
The only reason Zihark could tell it had once been a cart was because of the bent metal wheel rim sticking out.
As for the horse?
Gone.
Kai'Sa had already burned it to ashes.
Judging from the traces left at the scene, Zihark pieced together what had happened. The void scar had dragged the man and his cart down together.
The man escaped, the cart was wrecked, but the Void did not eat inorganic matter, which was why the cart had lasted until now. As for the beast that had been pulling it, it had naturally been corrupted by the void scar and turned into a hunter. That explained what they had run into earlier.
If there was a cart, then there had to be cargo. Zihark lightly kicked aside the shattered birdcages that had been torn open by brute force, climbed onto the sand mound, and began digging through the cart wreckage.
Kai'Sa watched for a while and decided this looked fun. She came over too, basking in the sunlight while "treasure hunting" together with the person she liked.
One by one, they dug out waterskins, fruit, and dried rations. Among the fruit were Kai'Sa's favorite peaches, the crisp kind that were still a little underripe.
She wiped the fuzz off one, raised it to her mouth, and was just about to bite down when she suddenly stopped, as if something had occurred to her.
Zihark knew exactly what she was worried about. At the moment, there was still no way to separate the voidskin from their skin, which meant if they ate and later needed to relieve themselves, things would get very awkward.
Having the voidskin absorb menstrual blood was embarrassing enough. If it started absorbing other bodily waste too, that would be enough to haunt a person forever.
So, to avoid that problem, the two of them had no choice but to keep fasting, doing their best not to eat a scrap of food or drink a drop of water. Once Zihark figured out how to separate the voidskin, then they could finally enjoy a proper meal.
Still, there was a way to cheat a little.
"Kai'Sa, if you want to eat, then eat. Just don't swallow it." Zihark demonstrated by taking a bite of a crisp peach, chewing the flesh for the taste, then spitting it out.
Kai'Sa's eyes lit up. She immediately copied him, and the fragrance of peach burst across her dried-out taste buds, leaving her looking thoroughly satisfied.
She got a little greedy and swallowed some of the sweet juice too, but it was not a big problem. That tiny bit of moisture could be sweated out with ordinary movement. As things stood, the voidskin was maintaining the nutrients and water in her body anyway, so she was not going to dehydrate.
At some point, one of them spat a peach pit at the other, and just like that, the two of them started a fruit fight.
They hurled the fruit lying at their feet straight at each other without mercy. Every hit burst into mush, juice splashing everywhere.
Of course, the damage was nonexistent. Their defenses were too high for fruit to matter, and if the throw was not hard enough, the other person barely felt it at all.
It was definitely a waste.
But it was also genuinely fun.
Too bad Zihark had not found any watermelons. If he had, the show would have been incredible.
After the fruit fight, they did not even need to worry about sticky juice clinging to their bodies. The voidskin automatically absorbed the juice on their surface. For self-cleaning, Zihark would have given it full marks.
If not for how terrifying it looked, and the fact that wearing it hurt, he really would not have minded keeping the voidskin on all the time.
If only it could mimic appearances as well...
Maybe if he devoured a chameleon someday, he could try that?
After that, the two of them stood atop the sand mound, digging as they argued about whether soft peaches or crisp peaches tasted better.
Zihark liked crisp peaches for the texture, especially the slightly tart green ones.
Kai'Sa liked any peach at all, but she clearly preferred juicy soft peaches and honey peaches.
The moment Zihark heard that, he declared her a heretic and demanded to know how anyone could possibly like those soft peaches that dented if you pressed them.
Kai'Sa defended her taste to the death.
And then Zihark started chasing her, threatening to smack her peachy butt.
He had not really meant to hit her. He was just fooling around. But to his surprise, Kai'Sa only made a token effort to run before letting him catch up.
Which meant hitting her felt wrong.
And not hitting her felt awkward.
So the mood froze on the spot.
They both knew perfectly well that if Kai'Sa had truly wanted to run, Zihark never would have caught her.
You do not run, I do not hit, and the whole thing quietly died there.
The two of them changed the subject and kept digging until they found something else in the sand, which finally broke the awkwardness.
It was a special birdcage, and inside was a sand falcon that had not been corrupted by the Void.
For Zihark, this was a pleasant surprise. He had no idea whether it had died from the fall or suffocated after being buried under sand, but as long as the corpse was intact, it could still serve as material.
Using the brute strength granted by his voidskin, he bent the cage open, pulled out the dead sand falcon, gripped it by the neck, and let the voidskin devour it.
The process was bloodless.
But it looked horrifying.
Zihark was only holding the bird by the neck, not moving at all, yet the sand falcon began to convulse.
With each convulsion, part of its body disappeared into his palm, while several feathers spat outward. It was as if there were a miniature black hole in Zihark's hand, compressing and devouring the bird's flesh like mad.
The wings, the chest, the belly, the claws, and finally the head were all swallowed one by one by the voidskin in his palm.
The sand falcon vanished without a trace.
Only a dozen or so black feathers on the ground remained to prove it had ever existed.
Zihark opened his hand and looked at his palm. All he saw was a crack sealing shut again, purple light glowing faintly within it.
He did not rush to study what changes devouring a sand falcon might bring to his voidskin. After continuing to search the sand pile and finding nothing else, Zihark picked up one of the waterskins they had set aside earlier and tossed it to Kai'Sa.
"What's this for? I'm not thirsty." Kai'Sa caught it reflexively, gave it a shake, and found it full of water. Her face filled with confusion.
Zihark knew perfectly well that she was not drinking water right now, so why hand her a waterskin?
"To wash your face. If only I had a mirror, I'd make you look at how dusty and filthy you are." Zihark shook his head. Could this girl really not tell how bad she looked?
"Oh. Right." Kai'Sa suddenly understood. Then she asked Zihark to hold the waterskin for her while she washed her face, since she could not do both at once.
"Coming."
Zihark was definitely not going to miss this chance. Otherwise, next time he might end up with another mouthful of grit.
"Pour a little into my hand first so I can rub my face... hey, not that much. Save some. You can wash too."
"Don't worry about me. There's another waterskin over there that's only half-used. If we keep being this stingy, you'll even have enough to wash your hair."
"Good idea!"
Zihark poured some water into Kai'Sa's palms. If she consciously held herself back, the voidskin would not absorb it on its own.
And besides, when people said the Void devoured organic matter, that was only a broad way of putting it. It also fed on magic. Water was not organic, but it still drank some of that too.
Kai'Sa brought the water to her face and started scrubbing hard.
Since the surface of the voidskin was covered in tiny scales a little coarser than fingerprints, rubbing like that felt almost like scraping her face.
[End of chapter]